Hard Drive Crash, Erased All Music.

Hey guys-
So my hard drive just crashed and I didn't want to drop $600 to get it recovered at Tech Serve (so expensive!) So I bought a new MacBook (my old one had defects) and of course, my iTunes is completely empty. I e-mailed Apple iTunes Support, but I haven't gotten an answer from them yet. The Genius Bar said that I could email them and they could send me my purchased music somehow. Has anyone experienced this and has it worked successfully?

Sorry, but officially Apple does not allow redownloads of purchased items. It's your responsibility to make backup copies in case something goes wrong with your system, as unfortunately it apparently did in your case, and you lose all the information on your hard drive. The official statement of their policy can be found here, among other places. If you haven't made a backup, and don't have your tracks on an iPod, you're probably out of luck and will need to repurchase your tracks.
You can try contacting iTunes Store Customer Service (if that's not who you've already contacted) and explaining what happened. Reportedly in some cases Apple has allowed redownloading on a one-time basis, but don't count on it.
Good luck.

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External Hard drive crash - lost all music

The external hard drive where I store all of my iTunes music crashed today and the only other copy of it is on my iPod. Is there any way I can set up my iPod to transfer the music back to my hard drive without losing it? My iPod is set to sync automatically and I'm afraid it will erase everything if I hook it up to my computer. I've poured over the help topics on the Apple site, but nothing addresses my particular problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

*Is there any way I can set up my iPod to transfer the music back to my hard drive without losing it? My iPod is set to sync automatically and I'm afraid it will erase everything if I hook it up to my computer.*
If your iPod is set to update automatically you need to take care connecting to an empty iTunes. You can use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on Windows with iTunes 7.3 or later installed hold down the Shift + Ctrl keys together. This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go. This may take between 20 to 30 seconds depending on your computer: iTunes - Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows
When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that way you can continue to use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using most of the utilities listed below your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default: Managing content manually on iPod and iPhone
Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. If you have any iTunes Music Store purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. You'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
The transfer of content from sources such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
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iPod2PC Windows Only
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SharePod Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
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iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
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There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
Whichever of these retrieval methods you choose, keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync.

HT203167 I had a hard drive crash & lost all of my music. Most of it came from ripping my CDs, which I can do again. I'd like to clear my iTunes library without emptying my iPod too. Can I do this?

When I tried to remove the existing library so I could start ripping again, I got a message that said that all of the library entries I delete will be removed from my iPod next time I sync. I do NOT want to do that. It will take me some time to rip all of my CDs again, and I don't want to have an empty iPod in the meantime.
Is there a way to clear my iTunes library of all of the invalid songs (which is most of them) and not have them deleted from my player?
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Unfortunately I do not. I had all of my music on this external drive that crashed. I have a replacement drive now but the re-ripping process will be slow to come. I just basically wanted to start with a `clean slate' in iTunes without emptying the contents of my iPod.
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External Hard Drive crashed with all songs on it. HELP!!!

Hello. My kids have used my work PC as their itunes playground for over the past year. I added a Lacie external hard drive to help them save thier music and had itunes on it, as well as my pc. The external hard drive crashed and won't communicate with the pc at all so when we bring up itunes on the pc it shows exclamation marks next to almost all of the songs and won't play them. I still have almost all of our music on my ipod, except about 170 songs that they purchased since I last plugged in my ipod, they have their own mini's. I want to know how to get the songs back to my computer. I am afraid if I connect the 60GB ipod to the pc all of our songs will be wiped out since my ipod is on autosync. Can anyone give me a reliable way to get everything back to normal? PLEASE!!!!

Connect your iPod to your computer. If it is set to update automatically you'll get a message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all songs from your iPod. Your iPod should appear in the iTunes source list from where you can change the update setting to manual and use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using a lot of the utilities your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button: Managing content manually on iPod
Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. If you have any iTMS purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers has been introduced with iTunes 7. A paragraph on it has been added to this article:: Transfer iTunes Store purchases using iPod
The transfer of non iTMS content such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there's a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to your Mac. The procedure is a bit involved but if you're interested it's available at this link: Two-way Street: Moving Music Off the iPod
If you prefer something more automated there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve music files and playlists from your iPod, this is just a selection. I use Senuti but have a look at the web pages and documentation for the others too, you'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos and games as well. You can also read reviews of some of them here: Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
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My hard drive crashed and need music off of iphone to computer

Hi, ok so my hard drive crashed and i lost all my music. I toke the computer in and the tech guys supposedly saved all my info on my external hard drive but for some reason i can not get my music back to itunes so i can restore everything. So my question is if there is anyway to get my info off of my iphone back to my computer

It has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer for just such an occasion.
Use your backup copy to put everything back.
If for some reason you have failed to maintain a backup ( not good), then you can transfer itunes purchases from an ipod/iphone. Without syncing : File>Transfer Purchases
Make sure you have authorized the computer to your account first.
If you sync contacts and calendars to a blank computer, then they will be erased as well. Another reason why always maintaining a backup is critical.
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Is there another way to reaquire the apps I've already purchased, but have been lost due to an iMac hard drive crash?
Thank you, helpful person of the future.

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https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
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Hello,
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Hard drive crashed, need transfer music from ipod to new computer

Installed iTunes on laptop, hooked up my iPod & tried to drag and drop music into library, but it will not allow files to come over.

You can't drag and drop content from an iPod to iTunes however there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac and Windows
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
If you have any iTunes Music Store purchases the transfer of purchased content only from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. You'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
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It has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer for just such an occasion.
Use your backup copy to put everything back.
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Make sure you have authorized the computer to your account first.
If you sync contacts and calendars to a blank computer, then they will be erased as well. Another reason why always maintaining a backup is critical.
You can enter one unique contact and calendar entry on your computer and when you first sync you should get the option to merge.
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?When your hard drive crashes

I had about 400 compact discs and a few itunes worth of music on my itunes when my hard drive crashed.
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Is this correct?
I'd appreciate any help on how to live with this lost data on my hard drive.
Message was edited by: acb3
Message was edited by: acb3

Hi. Welcome to the forums.
Yes, Your new install will want to overwrite the iPod with a blank library given half a chance. Check out this post from Zevoneer for some iPod recovery options.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6273675&#6273675
Should explain how you can drag your music back from the iPod. I've used the manual method successfully in the past. Some of the other tools can take a long time to catalogue the iPod so be patient.
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Hard Drive Crash, Erased All Music.

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